Marco van Ginkel: Chelsea switch concerns Marc Overmars

The Amsterdam side wanted to sign the 20-year-old Vitesse Arnhem midfielder themselves, but lost out to the Blues.

"Van Ginkel is a great young talent and we would have liked him to come to Ajax," Overmars told BBC Sport.

"Whether it is too early for him to go to Chelsea or not, I don't know. With us, he would have played a lot of games and played in the Champions League."

Van Ginkel's rise

Marco van Ginkel joined Vitesse Arnhem when he was just seven years old and has progressed through their academy. He made his debut for the club in April 2010 and his international debut came in November last year.

Van Ginkel was last season voted the best player under the age of 21 in the Netherlands.

He played a key role in helping Vitesse to end the season in fourth, their highest league finish since 1998, and in November won his first Netherlands cap.

@322I said I agree the midfield isn't as strong when you break down the list of players who are already there,but its stronger than ajax's and hence he would get more playing time at Ajax, in a world cup year this is what he needs. I can understand overmars is bitter but I believe he has a point. We will both look really stupid if the intention all along has been to loan him t Ajax for next season

Those players you mentioned are more attack minded as Luiz said. If you pay attention to what formation Chelsea play then you will know. MVG isn't an Oscar or Hazard type player, he is more like a Ramires or Lamps. Chelsea seem short in that area so I can only see quality game time for MVG. If he plays 1000 mins in his first season then it will be great experience & progress.

@331and i suppose you think we deserved to win CL and dimatteo is a genuis! Just to put you straight - WE WERE MORE THAN EXTREMELY LUCKY AND DI MATTEO WAS A VERY LUCKY SUNDAY AFTERNOON PUB TEAM MANAGER who achieved the ignominy of taking us out of CL at our pitiful attempt to retain the trophy and yes lamps and essien are finished - done- to old - no - pace stop living in the past

@329 On what basis do you put Lamps & Essien as finished & Romeu as useless. Lamps was superb last year & Essien did pretty well for RM. Romeu has been injured for over a year & looked useful under AVB when he played.Luiz is a liability at CB but in DM he is awesome.I don't think Ramires is particularly culpable for giving the ball away.The last 3 years we have been so poor we have won the CL?

This page is best viewed in an up-to-date web browser with style sheets (CSS) enabled. While you will be able to view the content of this page in your current browser, you will not be able to get the full visual experience. Please consider upgrading your browser software or enabling style sheets (CSS) if you are able to do so.